Jaguar, Land Rover will both skip 2012 Detroit Auto Show

You read that right – because the 2012 NAIAS overlaps with the New Delhi Auto Expo in Tata Motors’ home country of India – the former Ford brands of Jaguar and Land Rover will not have a presence on the massive show floor. India’s automotive market has been growing rapidly but it seems like a surprising move for Tata to pull both Jaguar and Land Rover from one of the key American auto shows, especially considering that the Detroit Auto Show is the location where the North American Truck of the Year is announced – and the Land Rover Evoque is in the finalists for that major award.

This marks the first time that the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will be absent from the North American International Auto Show and while some other foreign companies have skipped the Detroit show in past years, the recovery of the American auto industry and the Detroit show itself have influenced previous companies who passed (Nissan, for one) to return to the Motor City show. Land Rover had a strong presence at last month’s LA Auto Show, introducing the new Land Rover DC100 Concept on American soil but the Detroit crowd looks like it will be without either of these British-based, Indian-owned automakers.

It will be interesting to see if Tata Motors will give local dealership associations permission put to together a small display of their own to show off the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. In past years, when companies like Nissan and Mitsubishi have opted out of the Detroit show, dealership groups teamed up to put together small displays featuring the company’s top selling models at that time. However, it wasn’t hard to tell that the Detroit show Mitsubishi display a few years ago lacked the big money backing of an international automaker as the display was poorly staffed and poorly lit so it was easy to miss all three of the vehicles in attendance. Based on that poor showing for Mitsubishi, when Nissan backed out of the Detroit show the following year and local dealerships wanted to put together something on their own, the company nicely asked (read: told) the dealerships not to put together what would likely have been an embarrassing display in contrast to the competition. The local Jaguar and Land Rover dealer groups may have the finances to look into making a display of their own but like Nissan, Tata may ask that they do not go on their own.

TorqueNews.com will be out at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in force, bringing you all of the top models and display reviews from the Motor City motor show. Unfortunately, we won’t be bringing you any news from Jaguar or Land Rover but at least I won’t have to deal with the uncomfortable repercussions of the Land Rover display’s questionably room-temperature shrimp appetizers.

Other NAIAS News:
2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS Coming to Detroit with Top Price
In time for 2012 NAIAS, the Motor Trend 2012 Truck of the Year: Ford F-150
General Motors teases the new 2013 Buick Encore CUV
Two new interior teasers of the 2013 Dodge Dart appear online
GM announces 270 horsepower turbo 4-cylinder for Cadillac ATS

Source: Automotive News